Also called: Lines of Marriage · Lines of Union · Lines of Affection · Lines of Attachment · Prem rekha
Where on the hand: On the Mount of Mercury, in the narrow band between the Heart line and the base crease of the little finger, on the percussion side of the palm.
What it looks like: Short horizontal lines running inward from the percussion toward the centre of the palm. They often begin round on the side of the hand — Benham notes they start from the outside of the hand, sometimes at the back, cutting around into the Mount of Mercury. Some are strong, long and clear; others are faint hairlines.
Deep attachments, unions, the relationships that mark a person. Both traditions agree these are not literally a count of marriages. Only the strong, clear lines register as unions; the faint hairlines beside them are attractions, infatuations, affairs and friendships.
How to spot them
- **Squeeze the little finger toward the palm slightly** — this everts the mount and brings the lines into view.
- **Look round onto the side of the hand** — the lines frequently begin on the percussion or even at the back before cutting into the mount.
Which lines count
- **Only the strong, long, clear lines** count as unions.
- **Faint short hairlines near them** are attractions, infatuations, affairs and friendships — not marriages.
- **A line that reaches noticeably into the palm** carries more weight than one that stops at the mount's edge.
Variations
- **Clear, straight, deep, unbroken, no island** — an extremely successful, stable married life.
- **Forked at the START (percussion end)** — delay, obstruction or frustration at the beginning of the relationship; a courtship with impediments.
- **Forked at the END (palm end)** — separation, divorce, or a drifting apart; the wider the fork, the greater the estrangement.
- **Drooping / curving DOWN toward the Heart line** — the partner outlives, or the relationship declines. If the drooping end **touches or cuts the Heart line**, older sources read bereavement; the modern reading is a relationship that ends in grief.
- **Rising / curving UP toward the little finger** — traditionally no marriage, or a life devoted to something other than marriage; a strongly independent temperament.
- **Curving up to the Sun / Apollo line or mount** — marriage to someone of distinction; a marriage that raises the person's standing.
- **Islanded** — a period of separation, unhappiness, or an entanglement within the union.
- **Broken** — rupture; if the ends **overlap**, reconciliation or remarriage to the same or a similar partner.
- **Cut by a fine vertical bar** — opposition to the union from outside.
- **Crossed by the Girdle of Venus** — Indian sources: a nagging, hyper-sensitive or emotionally volatile partner.
- **A line from the Mount of Luna reaching up to touch it** — the influence of an outsider on the marriage.
- **A star at the end** — traditionally a violent or shocking end to the relationship; archaic, treat with caution.
- **Two strong parallel lines very close together** — two significant simultaneous attachments, or a remarriage to the same person.
- **Multiple lines of varying depth** — several attachments; relative depth = relative significance.
Supporting features (Indian doctrine)
- **Never read from the Vivah rekha alone** — Indian sources insist marriage is read from four features together.
- **1. The Vivah rekha itself.**
- **2. The Heart line** — its quality and its ending.
- **3. The Mount of Venus** — its size, firmness and colour, governing romantic and sexual compatibility.
- **4. The Fate line's origin, and any branch from Luna joining it** — the love-marriage indicator.
- **The love-marriage marker** — a branch of the Fate line coming from the Mount of Luna and joining the main Fate line, or a Fate line originating on Luna, is the classical Indian marker of a love marriage or a marriage that redirects the life.
- **The arranged-marriage pattern** — a Fate line rising cleanly from the wrist with no Luna influence tends to be read as an arranged or conventional union.
Western reading: Benham warns explicitly against counting the lines: marriage does not mark every subject, and some people who marry have no Marriage lines at all. Only strong, clear lines are unions.
Read with care: Counting lines and predicting that many marriages is condemned in the sources themselves as inaccurate and unscientific. Readings of bereavement, violent endings (star at the end) and divorce are archaic and should be presented as tradition, never as forecasts about a real relationship.
start from the outside of the hand, sometimes at the back cutting around into the Mount of Mercury.Benham
Marriage does not affect every subject in the same way. Some people are no more impressed on entering into this relation than if they were performing any ordinary routine of daily life. Such persons will have no Marriage lines.Benham
most inaccurate and unscientificBenham
our science ridiculousBenham
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.